Okay, Who Stole Geraint Thomas’s Tour de France Trophy?

The 2018 Tour champion wants his prize back.

By
Daisy Hernandez

Oct 12, 2018

Anadolu AgencyGetty Images

Ever since his surprising victory at the Tour de France in July, Geraint Thomas has been doing a ton of press. So toward the end of last month, the Team Sky rider lent his trophy—an elegant blue-and-gold cup known as the Coupe Omnisports—to the Cycle Show, a three-day exhibition in Birmingham, U.K.

But on October 2, Thomas realized something had gone terribly awry: While the Coupe was left unattended during a cleanup on September 30, someone snuck in and stole the trophy, making off with the coveted prize undetected. (The crime wasn’t reported until two days later, and officials only made it public on Wednesday.)

Now, the 32-year-old champion is asking for it back.

“It goes without saying that the trophy is of pretty limited value to whoever took it, but means a lot to me and to the team,” Thomas said in a statement this week. “Hopefully whoever took it will have the good grace to return it.”

Handcrafted from porcelain in the French town of Sèvres, the Coupe has been awarded to the Tour de France winner every year since 1975. Chris Froome, Thomas’s teammate on Sky, won it four times between 2013 and 2017.

Many fellow athletes in pro cycling reached out to Thomas to offer support and wishes that the thief or thieves return the Coupe. None other than Lance Armstrong chimed with a cheeky offer in a tweet that, ah, definitely raised some eyebrows:

Armstrong, of course, was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, essentially rendering his trophies insignificant.

Thomas took the lead in Stage 11 of the 2018 Tour and never let it go, holding onto the yellow jersey through the race’s conclusion in Paris. Though it was the sixth time a British rider had won in the last seven years—another Sky rider, Bradley Wiggins, took the title in 2012—Thomas was the first Welshman in history to win the Tour.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Bicycling participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.